Media Mum on Protected Codes of Silence, But Can't Shut Up About Alleged Cop Omerta

Go You Northwestern, Bruce!




Once again the Medill Marxist Day Camp at Northwestern University, home of the MacArthur Center for Justice for Some and the Lawyers Who Shill for Them, Bernardine Dohrn's Ghost Payroll Gig, and The Fagin Dave Protess Buy a Cabbie School of Journalism, has coaxed Wild Kit Bruce Dold into another shameless plea for Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers G. Flint Taylor, Jon Loevy and their comrades with today's editorial -

Don't appeal Abbate verdict: Time for City Hall to eradicate the 'code of silence'

Gee, Bruce, this h'yar polemic makes me want to toss on my Atticus Finch Suit, but it is after Labor Day. Dold and Company's  clownish offering is nothing but smoke screen for political power players, lawyers and the Medill Big Progresive Thoughts sausage works in Evanston.

The wake-up call came Tuesday when a federal jury ordered the city and former Officer Anthony Abbate to pay $850,000 in damages to bartender Obrycka. Abbate, off-duty, had beaten her in a bar attack caught on video that went viral.
The city — Chicago taxpayers — also must pay Obrycka's attorney fees dating back to 2007. Combined with what the city's Law Department already has devoted in resources, the tab is about $5 million and rising,  . . .Lesson learned? No. City Hall intends to challenge the verdict through post-trial motions, which are standard in these cases, and if those fail, appeal.
Bad idea. Move on, Mr. Mayor. . . .Within a few weeks, an internal police agency reviewed the case — but not the video at first — and recommended a misdemeanor charge for Abbate. Investigators even took the unusual step of going to Obrycka's home get her to sign a misdemeanor arrest report. But once she realized he was about to get a slap on the wrist, she released the video publicly. It was seen around the world.

Suddenly, the department took her case very seriously. The state's attorney's office upgraded the charges to felonies. Her lawsuit alleged that cops protect cops — that, because of a code of silence, Abbate would have received minor punishment had millions not seen that video.
While the department has strict, written guidelines for cases of alleged misconduct, the trial proved those procedures weren't followed. Ekl argues they still aren't: A too-cozy relationship persists between the department and the Independent Police Review Authority, which handles misconduct allegations. . . .
But for the bad ones, the code of silence, he said, is "alive and well."

It's long overdue that the Chicago Police Department start abiding by its own rules when officers become suspects in criminal cases. As police misconduct expert Lou Reiter testified in Obrycka's case, the vast majority of Chicago officers are decent, moral public servants who never have cause to interact with the Independent Police Review Authority.

No cop ever said Abbate was 'one of their own,' Bruce. No cop ever demanded to give this vicious drunken whale a cintilla of support.

Ask this, Bruce. Who clouted Abbate onto the job, protected Abbate and gave him the comfort to besmear his profession?  Who among the  the Ward players and through the Merit bosses in the department and through"Merit" whispered the command?  The guy on Floor # Five at the Time?  I'm sorry I can not hear you. Please speak up.

How about the code of silence at Tribune Towers?  How about the code of silence at Medill?  How about the code of silence between the Progressive Power Players in academia?  How did Bernadine Dorhn get her gig?  Who hired Bill Ayers at UIC (I believe it was Stan Ikenberry ) . Is there a Code of Silence at Cease Fire which took a $ 1 million buckoons and did absolutely nothing - again?

Can you name one Chicago Police Officer ( Non-Merit Gold Braid types exempt of course) who thinks that Abbate is not a louse?  I can not and I talk to scores of cops a week.

The Code of Silence meme in this case of Abbate and the tiny Polish bartender is a legal gambit to open the door even wider for the likes of Loevy and G. Flint and the Center for Wrongful Opportunities to Be Somebody at Medill.  Is there a Chicago Police code of silence?

Not among cops;  they'll tell you plenty.   Is there a code of silence?  Speak up.

The Code of Silence is another Code of Opportunity, like Systemic Police Torture.

There is a Code falsehood in the editorials in this city.

According to one 19th Century journalist thus always that be - "There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes." John Swinton 1829-1901)

Get Load of "Honorary Consul" Kelley's Authentic (if they be so) Diplomatic Credentials!

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — When news vans camped outside her stately home, a Florida socialite tied to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal fell back on her informal credentials as a social ambassador for Tampa society and top military brass: She asked police for diplomatic protection.
In the phone call to authorities, Jill Kelley, a party hostess and unofficial social liaison for leaders of the U.S. military's Central Command in Tampa, cited her status as an honorary consul general while complaining about news vans that had descended on her two-story brick home overlooking Tampa Bay.
"You know, I don't know if by any chance, because I'm an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property. I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well," she told the 911 dispatcher Monday

I'm no law enforcement, diplomatic, or government authority, but I know a great set of credentials when I see them.

Call me an old sexist cynic, but I'd say that Consul Kelley ( no relation to Chicago barrister Dan Kelley) stacks up-credential wise.

You can beat a drum.

You can, with the right mouth-piece,  beat a right-turn ticket.

But, you can not beat stupid.

Meatless - Monday or Friday? Go Reconcile Yourself.

Was that you, Ma?  Good Lord.

I am saving Mother Earth.

I can't get the window with this bum stepper.

It's Organic, Pa and it's Monday.

In a unanimous 12-0 vote, the council approved a resolution Friday endorsing the "meatless Monday" campaign and asking residents to make a personal pledge to ditch meat for one day a week.
The resolution makes L.A. the largest city to     sign on to the international "Meatless Mondays" campaign, which aims to reduce meat consumption for health and environmental reasons. L.A. Times

Fifty years ago, we ate fish sticks of Friday.  When the Old Man could be home for a Friday dinner we had halibut.  A couple of years later, we were told that Friday fish was out and we could have meat from animals that  " walked the earth" on Friday as well.

We were called Mackerel Snappers, Fish Eaters and Friday Pork Dodgers by our ecumenical pals who either went to public school, Timothy Lutheran, or kopped a plea and attended Little Flower Grammar School with us Cat Licks.

We did not swim at YMCA either. We went over by Leo High School, or to Ridge Park and very often took CTA and Sunburban transit to Blue Island's Memorial Park.  The YMCA preached 'birth control' and the older gents swam in the nude - very Progressive.  We swam elsewhere in swimming trunks and ate fish on Fridays.

Friday was a day of abstinence - a adjunct to the Sacrament of Penance - in preparation to a visit to the confessional box on Saturday afternoon.

The Sacrament of Penance was nuanced into Reconciliation 'Forget God, it is our human community with whom we must atone.'

The lines to the confessional box vanished.  Hey, sorry . . .heartily sorry. Sin vanished.

Now, we hear of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops returning the faithful to the purpose of Penance.  As part of this evangelical consideration, Catholics will be asked to again abstain on Fridays.

Not to be eclipsed by the Bishops, the Los Angeles City Council asks its citizens to reconcile themselves to obesity and the environment.  Meatless Mondays are Progressive Doctrine.

I get the lard legislation. Wide loads are a burden on the eyes of the lithe liberal and legislion ladlers -  Be like Us, Your Betters! Reconcile yourselves to the fact that WE know better. 

I have also heard the flatulent fantasies of the Eco-radicals holding that hoofed and cloven creatures fart up a storm and blow holes in the ozone -They, preach, "WE (you) must ALL (you) go and consume less meat, and MOTHER EARTH will have fewer eructations from bossy and Old Major splitting the pastoral sound barrier and wafting heaven-ward.  Be Vegan!"

Well, husbanded cows, pigs, sheep, and foul are Vegans.  They eat no meat with their feed - only vegetables and wholesome grains.

Moreso, I have been in the proximity of Vegans of all shapes and sizes in the produce sections of Whole Foods and let me tell you the methane atmosphere could not be attributed to Slim Jim consumers.  I was once part of a line at the checkout for Whole Foods immediately behind a pony-tailed hottie of twenty or so with a basket loaded with organic beets, beans, brown rice, tofu, carrots, kale and cabbages.  This athleticly toned and tanned young siren proceed to staccato caps of noxious rounds that would gag a hungry maggot.

In words of Kipling's Peachy Carnehan from the Man Who Would Be King, the Gwenth Paltrow look alike seemed to "break wind at both ends simultaneous - which is more, I reckon, than any god can do."

With watery eyes, but good manners I backed off and broke ranks, fitting in behind a solid-looking Bavarian Burgher clutching an expensive ham which perfumed the queue removed a safe distance from yon Vegan Vestal.

I choose to do Penance on Friday and abstain from my four-legged and feathered friends of Mother Earth.  I need to do Penance.

As to the LA Inquisition?  Go reconcile yourselves!

The Catholic Vote in my Precinct ( 23rd of the 19th Ward) in Chicago

My Precinct is very Catholic; my Ward is very Catholic.   Here is how the election returns reflect a heavily Catholic voting sample.  Mind you, I am nothing if not very scientific.

               Prec't.   Total reg.    Obama        %                 Romney          %            Gary Johnson  % Green          %   

23

518

273

52.70%

236

45.56%

5

0.97%

4

0.77%

      Ward  Total reg.       Obama           %                     Romney       %                       Gary Johnson %        Green          %

19

28955

18421

63.62%

10098

34.87%

258

0.89%

178

0.61%

Early on the morning of November 6th, 2012 Kareem's Dunkin Donuts at 104th & Western Ave. was thicker with folks than usual.   Poll judges and workers were getting coffee and donuts prior to their labors monitoring the public franchise and getting out the vote.

I vote at the Quaker Meeting House at 107th & Artesian, so there might be a Quaker or two in the precinct.  Likewise the Unitarian Church at 103rd & Longwood has long been a home to former Catholics and devotees of the Unitarian creed.  However, most everyone I know is Catholic.

Catholics voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in my Ward, but bit less in my precinct.

Catholics - the country's largest religious group with one-quarter of the population - have supported the winner of the popular vote in every election since 1972.
Reuters/Ipsos exit polling found that 51 percent of Catholics favored President Barack Obama, compared with 48 percent for Republican contender Mitt Romney. A report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life had a similar finding, with 50 percent of Catholics for Obama and 48 percent for Romney, the same as the popular vote in the general population. Reuters

I saw Alderman Matt O'Shea all over the Ward on election day and he really did a great job getting out the vote and making it a smooth operation.

Terry Sullivan Trio at 12 West Elm - Last Call! 4PM

'You're on Miss Sullivan!'




Sunday November 11th 4:00PM-6:00PM - The Terry Sullivan Trio - Terry Sullivan brings the classic NYC Supper Club environment back to Chicago. Accompanied by the most talented musicians in Chicago, this is a performance that shouldn't be missed!

Jazz in the Afternoon

Terry Sullivan Trio

Sunday, November 11, 2012

4:00 p.m. (new time)

TWELVEWEST nightclub

12 West Elm, Chicago

Admission $10

Information: 312/337-3200 or www.12westelm.com

Dress: business casual or better

                                                           

Pent Up in Utica - Illinois GOP Can Not Even do the Dutch Act

 
How'd that work out for you tasseled-loafer geniuses? Ask your leader Christine Radogno!

"I'm not sure what we need now is an in-your-face, confrontational, white, downstate male. I love our downstate guys. I have a great relationship with them, and I'm not playing a gender card," she told the Chicago Sun-Times.
"What I'm saying, as a practical matter, is that we need to change our image. Fairly or not, we're perceived -- and these aren't my words, I've read it reported this way -- as being the party of angry white men, and that's not true by the way. The fact of the matter is perception is reality, and we need to deal with it," she said.
Caprio took issue with Radogno's implication that the party needs to rebrand itself so it again can carry appeal with moderate suburban women like herself. (emphasis my own) -Sun Times

Indeed. Opt for the daffy, dizzy. ditsy woman we all know and love!  You know like a GOP Dawn Clark Netsch, or cloth coated Sheila Simon.  Wait, didn't angry white man Bill Foster just pull the chair out from Judy Biggert's padded rump?  She, after all, is identical Dawn and Sheila.

Hey, thanks for playing, Christine!  Write some more swell Marin-esque diatribes against the Catholic Church in your spare time. Now, back to Illinois GOP attempts at ritual suicide, which will fail as comically as all of its past efforts at anything and everything.

The Illinois GOP mocks itself - refer to its Leader Christine Radogno's pleas above.

Leading the laughs, and well he deserves to, is Illinois Speaker of House Mike Madigan.   He plays Illinois like a fiddle.

The Illinois GOP is not unlike the Roman Patrician Party confronted by the wildly talented, focused and brilliant Gaius Julius Caesar - read Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan.  Like Caesar Mike Madigan is a skilled, thoughtful and inventive statesman.   He has expanded the scope and power of the Illinois Democratic Party  over the last thirty years like no other man in public life.  He defeated the tasseled loafer patrician likes of Pate Phillips and Lee Daniels for control of the Illinois House and Senate with skill and finality.  Madigan cares not a whit what is said of or about himself in these his focused political tasks.  Madigan will suffer fools gladly, but brook no opposition from those who lick his salt.

Shiny objects, like civil unions, gay marriage, death to the death penalty,allegations of  police torture or misconduct, a woman's need to kill an unborn child, or BGA witch hunts on sleeping civil servants become stars in the political firmament for slack-jawed and oh,so smart, while the Speaker's will be done and quickly. The franchised voter occupies her time with star gazing. Mike Madigan is disciplined and closed mouthed. From 1983 to present with a brief DuPage County GOP Commonwealth, Mike Madigan has worked to keep Illinois solvent and joyful.

Without Mike Madigan and Gary Hannig, Governor Blagojevich would have bankrupted Illinois in 2007 with idiotic  gross receipts tax.

The very same forces that cry foul of Madigan curry his good will and have become his pawns.  I wish I had a nickel for every thousand of dollars spent by Democratic and Agenda PACs, individuals and the Illinois GOP to make personal war on the Speaker Madigan over the last thirty years.  I could retire from my helot's l;abors with the splendor of a Forrest Claypool, or a Toni Preckwinkle, this very day.

Speaker Madigan is Caesar.  Old Man Daley may have been a Marius and Richie Daley a lesser Sulla, but Mike Madigan, as far as political power is concerned is Caesar.   The Illinois GOP never has had a Cato - and intellectual, moral and ethical force of nature. Instead. the Party that always blows off it's own toes grabs someone and anyone.

Mark Brown's thoughtful post election analysis argued that the Illinois GOP would go the way of the Whigs -

Instead, Madigan emerges from this election as strong as ever, which I’d imagine came as less of a surprise to him, as his dominance is not of an accidental nature.Nowhere, though, were the Republican failures more glaring than in the Senate, where Democrats picked up a net gain of five seats.
Folks, this is a legislative chamber that not so very long ago was commanded by James “Pate” Philip, a Chicago-hating Republican from DuPage County.
Now, for at least the next two years and quite possibly for the next decade, Senate Republicans will be about as relevant as their counterparts on the Cook County Board, in other words not very.
And that Republican bastion of DuPage County?
It elected its first Democratic state senator Tuesday, to go along with two Democratic state representatives. And for the second straight time, Obama carried DuPage, too, although not by quite as much as four years ago. The very clear picture is that this is no longer Pate Philip’s DuPage County.

Whigs?  Naw.  The Whigs were not too interested in abolition as I recall and old Honest Abe cut a deal with Lyman Trumbull to defeat Democrat James J. Shields and wait to form a Republican Party that stood for something.  The 18th Century poet Joseph Addison wrote a tragedy, CATO, set immediately after Caesar's defeat of the Patrician Republicans in the African city of Utica, where Cato, the moral core of the Republican forces, plans and executes his suicide rather than submit to a phony and practical submission to the victor.  This play was performed at the command of General George Washington for the Continental Army at Valley Forge in order to steel its resolve against the Crown.  I would wager not one member of the Illinois GOP has ever heard of this tragedy.

The Illinois GOP, unlike the Patrician Cato, when faced with a Caesar -Madigan can not even do the Dutch Act properly, while 'pent up in Utica.'  Instead it made a place for ninnies like Judy Biggert and Christine Radogno who argue that the party should adopt identically popular positions on all social issues in order to get funding from Personal PAC and Fred Eychaner. Stand for nothing!

The only GOP candidates that I have ever heard make any sense were Ron Gidwitz and Dan Proft. Naturally, the Illinois GOP ran away from Gidwitz and Proft quicker than it does against Mike Madigan and any political win.

Illinois is awash in problems.  Do not blame Speaker Madigan. He is 50% against Illinois Governors only  the oily Jim Edgar(GOP) and the daffy Dem Pat Quinn are currently out of the hoosegow.  He is the only professional in the game.  Blame the lightweights that you allow to become search lights. If Christine Radogno is your idea of a game leader, understand your part in this daffy game.

Who knows not this! but what can Cato do Against a world, a base degenerate world, That courts the yoke, and bows the neck to Caesar? Pent up in Utica he vainly forms A poor epitome of Roman greatness, And, cover'd with Numidian guards, directs A feeble army, and an empty senate; Remnants of mighty battles fought in vain.

We might be going bankrupt, but it looks like Gay Marriage is on the way!

Capt. Herbie Johnson, CFD - A Funeral Tribute Worthy of a King

I passed on my way, God be praised that I met him,/Be life long or short, sure I'll never forget him./We may have brave men, but we'll never have better!/ Glory O, Glory O, to the bold Fenian men ( changes my own)

Yesterday, we said goodbye to a husband, a father, a brother, a neighbor, a heroic man who lived fiercely.

Herbie Johnson died on the job. His bride, children, brothers, sister, neighbors, comrades in the City's defense gave this fine man a send-off worthy of heads of state, kings and saints.

It was the very least.

Jazz in the Afternoon ith Terry Sullivan Trio Sunday November 11th at 12 West Elm

Hi Kids!

Terry Sullivan and Jazz Great Tom Muellner, as well as a these artists Art Davis, Jim Cox and Eric Hochberg have performed here at 12 West Elm for the last year. If you have caught the Chicago Jazz Caravan you have enjoyed real jazz.  If Sunday's have been too tough schedule, as they tend to be, you might wish to shuffle some time.

 Let's try and make it to the last show. You will have a ball!

Thanks.

Pat Hickey

                       Jazz in the Afternoon

Terry Sullivan Trio:

Tom Muellner, piano

Jim Cox, bass

MissTerry Sullivan, vocals

Sunday, November 11, 2012

4:00 p.m. (new time)

TWELVEWEST nightclub

12 West Elm, Chicago

Admission $10

Information: 312/337-3200 or www.12westelm.com

Dress: business casual or better

                                                           

Leo High School Lions of Laughter -Friday, November 16th at Beverly Art Center

Lions of Laughter: LEO H.S. Alumni Comedy Fundraiser - top Friday - November 16 8:00 PM November 16, 8pm $40/$50 at the door The Lions of Laughter present the comedy of Bill Campbell, Kenny Howell, Mike Toomey and Paul Kelly.

Four comic geniuses will fill the theatre of the Beverly Art Center with the mirth, memories and mayhem that is a huge fabric of Leo High School.
Giant of Comedy Paul Kelly - Listen in to the Skinny and Houli Show tonight on AM 1450 at 6PM and catch Paul match yarns and yucks with Leo President Dan McGrath -Taped Live from Lizzie McNeill's Pub, about eight blocks north of Leo High School - this show airs on Saturdays from 3:05-4PM and Sundays from 8:05-9PM.
.

Repeating their success of last year, Chicago's Dean of Comedy Paul Kelly will lead Bill "Soups" Campbell, Kenny Howell, and Chicago's Mike Toomey onto the stage once again.    Last year's Lions of Laughter was a sell-out smash.

Impressario Bobby Standring (Leo '70) has once again helped Paul Kelly make Lions of Laughter 2012 a hit.  Ticket sales are hotter than Barb Stegmiller.

All proceeds from this event will benefit Leo High School. Order your tickets now, so you have seat and won't be stepping on the guys rolling in aisles.

I'll Get My Post-Election Analysis From Skinny and Houli - Two Guys What Know the Score . . .See?

                                      (Sotto voce)

Skinny - 'Look Houli this is a pretty thin beef they got us on."
Houli - ' Howya mean, Skin Dr.?'
Skinny -' Simple . . .how can we be accused of stealing votes?  We was adding to 'em, see?'
Houli - 'Ex-akly. Hey, you two with yer ear on a stick!  Back up, 'for I gives ya's a slap.'

Skinny and Houli Live at Lizzie McNeill's Pub and broadcast on WCEV-1450 AM -6-7 PM Wednesday Night.  These two mugs know their onions and what onions can do all by their lonesome without nothing else.

Therefore, I trust my 2012 Post-Election Political Analysis to Skinny and Houli and no one else, see?  Skinny and Houli are two bright boys.
Get over by Lizzie McNeill's Pub on the Chicago River

Hours and Location

400 N McClurg Court

Chicago, IL 60611

Mon-Fri: 11:00 am - 2:00 am

Sat: 11:00 am - 3:00 am

Sun: 11:00 am - 2:00 am 

Step on it, Sister!  The best stools are probably took by the De La Salle National Honor Society and Latin Club already.  You look fine. . . .none of that back-sass either. Oh, yer goin'!


400 North McClurg Court  Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 467-1992

Vote And Be Proud of It!

All photos from the greatest Chicago newspaper - Chicago Daily News

America's First Responders Lead Leo Men to Honor the Fallen

The honor guard of Chicago's Own 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines leads the two hundred veterans and the Leo  High School student body and staff to the Leo War Memorial, at 11AM on Friday November 2nd..

Leo Veterans and Alumni:  Gene Earner leads the singing of God Bless America while Larry Richards of Bugles Across America prepares to sound taps.

God Bless America and all who protect us!

“He was the first one to go in,” Capt. Herbie Johnson, CFD RIP Christ Honor His Great Soul

 
" Dad, Mr. Johnson was killed in a fire at 58th,"  my son Conor informed me last night when he came home from work.  God, no. Poor Susan and the kids. His brothers and sisters all Chicago cops and his boy in the Marines. Our parish lost Brian Egan early this week and now Herbie.

Herbie Johnson?

“He was the first one to go in,”  all of the time.  

Christ called Captain Herbie Johnson home on All Souls Day.  Herbie Johnson was the quintessential Catholic gentleman, a man always surrounded by squads of laughing and worshipping little boys and girls on the Maplewood block or in the alley, a guy who radiated love, fun and family, a fierce doer. The family that he saved know of our loss.

Soria said she saw Captain Johnson on top of the house on the roof at one point. “He was the first one to go in,” Soria said.
Upon hearing news that the captain had died, the families of the charred building were shocked.

“We feel very bad,” Soria said. “He tried to save our lives,” said Ortiz.
“We didn’t think this would happen,” Soria said in Spanish. “Oh, God.”
Longino Soto, 43, who lives on the home’s first floor, said in Spanish: “I feel bad.”
“It could have been any one of us,” he said.
When Johnson was pulled from the blaze, witnesses watched as his fellow firefighters fought to save him, performing chest compressions before loading him into an ambulance. He was brought down to the home’s porch, still wearing his air mask.
“They pulled him out,” Maria Retiguin, 41, who lives across the street from the fire. “He was the first one in. He looked very bad. I was scared.”  Sun Times

Herbie Johnson grew up that way. A kid from St. Basil's on the Boulevard who shares the dangers remembers,

Johnson was assigned to Engine Co. 123 in Gage Park Friday, but usually worked from firehouses all around the city.
One firefighter who knew Johnson since they were kids said he will always remember his old friend's laugh.
“He was the best, he was the best guy,’’ said Chicago Fire Dept. Lt. Steve O’Malley, who had been relieved by Johnson around 6 a.m. Friday from Engine 123, Tower Ladder 39, on 51st Street after O’Malley had worked a 48-hour shift.
“He was his usual crazy self, laughing,’’ O’Malley said in a telephone interview, his voice shaking. “He always had a smile on his face."
O’Malley said he and Johnson talked about their old stomping grounds, the St. Basil neighborhood, where they both grew up near 58th and Winchester. They knew each other since grade school.
“I grew up with the whole family,’’ said O’Malley. “He was an all around great guy and great fireman. What a big-time, huge loss to the department. He was loved by everybody.
“We fight fires all the times, we had three that day. But now it hurts. Now it hurts,’’ O'Malley said.
Firefighters were called to the frame home in the Gage Park neighborhood around 5:15 p.m., according to Fire Department spokeswoman Meg Ahlheim. It was quickly raised to a 2-11 alarm, and an emergency medical services plan was called sending six ambulances to the scene, she said.
Family members said eight children, ages 2 to 14, were in the living room with an adult, and other adults were in the second-floor kitchen when they started to see smoke outside the windows. . . .Johnson is survived by his wife, Susan, a daughter and two sons, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said outside the hospital hours after the fire. One son is in college and the other in the U.S. Marine Corps. Three brothers are Chicago police officers, a sister is a retired Chicago cop and another brother is a Chicago firefighter. Chicago Tribune

Christ be good to you, Captain!

Staten Island - Now, Here is Some Voter Suppression

79.6% of the 500,000 citizens of Staten Island are Roman Catholic and along with their neighbors, it sure seems likely that the Catholic vote is being suppressed.  More importantly, these Americans are ignored and in mortal danger.  Some powers that be don't seem too interested in these voters - whatsoever.

There will be a New York Marathon.
  
Staten Island in New York is very much like my own neighborhood - working class, Catholic, ethnic and largely white.  This borough is home to fireman, cops, transit workers, skilled tradesmen, nurses and teachers - urban helots.

These folks won't (how in the Christ could they?) have a vote come Tuesday, but Manhattan will have a Marathon on Sunday.

This is the Middle Class the political wizards, spin-merchants and ad men whine about with such love and compassion that it would sicken a slug.

Staten Island is hurting.  People are missing.  Kids are freezing.  Old People endure the unimaginable with grace and faith.

Mayor Big Gulp is setting out the Big Apple welcome mat to Marathon runners from Kenya, Boston, L.A. and Switzerland on Sunday while a half a million of his citizens starve, suffer and strive against nature and political hypocrisy*.

Staten Islanders are a half-million people - Median Household Income -$55,000.

Home Values Before the Storm:
Estimated median house or condo value in 2009: $449,400 (it was $216,600 in 2000)

Staten Island:	$449,400
New York:	$306,000

Mean prices in 2009: All housing units: $538,672; Detached houses: $605,969; Townhouses or other attached units: $417,785; In 2-unit structures: $623,790; In 3-to-4-unit structures: $510,487; In 5-or-more-unit structures: $285,074; Mobile homes: $261,596; Occupied boats, RVs, vans, etc.: $389,490

Recent home sales, real estate maps, and home value estimator for zip codes: 10301, 10302, 10303, 10304, 10305, 10306, 10307, 10308, 10309, 10310, 10312, 10314.

 

Religion: 79.6% Roman Catholic
 

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Staten-Island-New-York.html#ixzz2B6bQunRq

Now, that's suppressing the vote - the Catholic vote.

It sure does seem like a monstrous way to keep people from the polls - ignore their suffering.      


             

Update at 5:01 PM CST

The marathon, Bloomberg told reporters, will "give people something to cheer about in a week that's been pretty dismal."
"You can grieve, you can laugh, you can cry, all at the same time," the mayor said.
He also said the race would pump much-needed money into the city's economy, which was brought to its knees by the storm.
CHRISTINE BRENNAN: A confounding and unseemly decisionSTATEN ISLAND: Help was slow in comingMary Wittenberg, president of the New York Road Runners that operates the event, also tried to fend off criticism by saying this year's event will involve more private contractors than in past years to ease the strain on city services.
The marathon, which has run every year since 1970, brings an estimated $340 million into the city, and race organizers say some of it will be used for recovery efforts.
New York Road Runners will donate $1 million to the recovery fund and said more than $1.5 million in pledges already had been secured from sponsors.
Bloomberg's critics, however, were blunt.
Councilman James Oddo, from the devastated borough of Staten Island, where the race will begin, lashed out at the mayor on his Twitter feed:
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer weighed in, saying the city is trying to recover from the blow by Sandy and now is not the time to hold a marathon.
He said in a statement that New Yorkers throughout the city "are struggling to keep body and soul together, deprived of basic essentials as temperatures drops."
The race should be rescheduled, he said, "in order to focus all of the city's resources on the crucial task of helping our neighbors recover from this disaster."
"New Yorkers deserve nothing less than to know that the entire government is focused solely on returning the city and their region back to normalcy," Stringer said.

If they take one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon I will scream. We have people with no homes and no hope right now

Rev. Dr. Joe Lowery's Honkies in Hades; Condemned Crackers and the Ofays' Inferno

I Voted for  Romney. What the Hell!  I'm going there anyway.

All white people are going to hell, longtime African-American civil rights advocate Rev. Joseph Lowery told an audience at a get-out-the-vote event held Oct. 27 in Georgia.

FYI - Obama Quotes -



 

Leo High School site of Veterans Observance on Friday, November 2, 2012 11AM - All Are Welcome

                                 
                     Leo Veterans Observances

Leo High School site of Veterans Observance on Friday, November 2, 2012

                                             at@11:00 A.M

Contact - Mr. Pat Hickey -Director of Development (773) 224-9600 ex. 208

When – November 2^th 2012 at 11AM

Where – The Courtyard of Leo High School 7901 South Sangamon Street Chicago 60620

What - Leo High School, Leo Alumni Association welcomes all veteran to the Memorial Observance at the Leo War Memorial in the school’s courtyard.  , Leo High School Principal Phil Mesina (USAF ret.)  & Vice Principal Frank Wilson (USMC ret.) will direct the observance which features presentations by Veterans, wreath - laying by John Gardner, President of the Alumni Association,

Leo High School erected a memorial in 1965 to the many Leo men who have died serving America in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and the Windy City Veterans of Chicago updated the engraved names and constructed permanent lighting for the memorial.   Last year more than two hundred persons joined the 150 Leo students in honoring America’s war fallen. 

Leo High School Speakers at War Memorial 11 A.M.

1. Principal Phil Mesina, USAF (ret.) and Vice-Principal Mr. Frank Wilson, USMC (ret.) call to Order

2.  Prayer Pete Doyle

3. Leo Alumni President Dan McGrath Leo ‘68

4. Color and Honor of the 2^nd Battalion, 24^th Marines – Posting of the Colors -Chicago’s own & Wreathe Laying by  Leo Veterans and members of of the James Arneberg ( US Marine, Leo '43 dec.) Family.

5. Our National Anthem –  Sung by All

6. Leo 2004 Alumnus and Iraq Afghanistan Combat Veterans:  Sgt. Jauwan Hall, USMC & Sgt. Marvin Carey U.S.A. 

7. Taps – Buglers Across America –Larry Richards Leo ’60, Gun Salute and Dismissal & Refreshments in Leo Cafeteria

Sponsors – Calabria Italian Imports and Steuber Florists

Today is The Feast of All Saints -AD 800 -2013

A British monk by the name of Alcuin was the first to set the date of November 1st as the commemoration of all the saints. However, Pope Boniface IV dragged 28 wagon loads of bones from the catacombs to the old Roman Pagan temple - The Pantheon and rededicated that building as a church sometime in May 609 AD.

The Pantheon was a temple that recognized all of the old Roman/Greek gods and now Christians who had come out of hiding from persecution in three hundred and twenty five years after Christ could recognize those who had been martyred for the Faith, or had lived exemplary lives.  My friends, family and neighbors are adding Brian Egan (58) to the canon of saints today at St. Cajetan's Church. This saint was a great guy.  There are many great guys and gals interred on consecrated ground, lost at sea, or cremated with ashes scattered all over the globe.  Tomorrow, we will recognize our War Dead at the Leo High School Memorial in the courtyard on 79th Street.

We remember the saints - small s.- as well as the Saints -Capital S.

The Pope began to set rigorous standards for official Canonization of Saints in about 990 AD. Five Hundred years ago the process became even more exacting. After Vatican II many Saints - Upper Case S - were taken out of the Canon of Saints; most memorable was the dropping of St. Christopher.

Sainthood is important, but not as important as remembering sainthood - Brian Egan is a great example.  He was a guy who showed up to worship, work and play.  Brian Egan was accountable.  That is the mark of real sainthood.  He knew the rules and did not need them.

Another saint once told me, "Don't worry about what Heaven is like; worry about what you are doing."

Do I lie, cheat, neglect, take, ignore, or shirk?  Good God, Yes.

Do I give, ease, fix, show up and remember?  Not for me to say.

White Rage & Segway Segue - Why I Disapprove of Whiney White Boys With Lawyers

I can't stand me some snotty white boys!

I have worked at Leo High School on the south side of Chicago since 1995  - not the south side where I live, mind you.  I am an old white boy and live in the 19th Ward ( Morgan Park) which is mostly peopled by old white boys, their wives and their kids.

The young men who attend and graduate from Leo High School are mostly black, non-Catholic young gents.  We have some white boys, but they are not of the garden variety upper middle class privileged background that spawns the white boy who gets on You Tube, arrested at G-8/NATO/GAY RIGHTS/St. Paddy's Day events and then has Pater's lawyers sue the bejazus out of everyone but the towel boy and Fore Caddy at Briarwood, Biltmore or Evanston Country Clubs.

The black,white and Mexican kids at Leo are working men's sons.  Like my kids and the kids of cops, firemen, teachers, tradesmen and nurses, they respect the aging, the elderly, the Veterans, mothers,  working men and themselves. Respect is learned.   Disrespect is intolerable. Entitlement?  As if.

Leo is a safe place in a very unsafe part of the city.  I  am here six days a week minimum.   I have always been treated with dignity and respect here in one of Chicago's most homicidal neighborhoods by the students and the neighbors.  Go figure. They hold it not against me that I am an old white boy!

It must be that our black kids from Englewood, Auburn Gresham, Grand Crossing and Brainard know that life is fraught with consequences - often fatal.  White, privileged males who fought on Nintendo, lettered in Madden Football, liberally ignore gas, beer, rent prices and other such bothersome consequences have caused me some small discomfort.

I met one such young scapegrace very recently in Chicago's Loop.  I was delivering materials downtown, when a lithe, rakishly disheveled, and tattooed son of Lake County when he rushed into me while talking, and or texting and vigorously  thumbing into some high-end black palm buddy apparatus recently purchased at a Steve Jobs venue.  Our contact upset his gait, his foaming latte and temper; this grey-beard was treated with a broken record of imprecation ( salty and salaciously hostile) and was greeted as the lad's "Bitch," once warned to watch it. So warned, Bub. This Bitch abides.

Now, I am as yellow as a duck's foot and have had my posterior lobes and other corporeal appendages kicked by the best of men and weakest of girl on any playground. Nevertheless, such bluster and bravado must not go unanswered.  God gifted me, if not with the lusty and husky accoutrements of an Ajax, with a very crazy set of eyes covered in the bushiest of eye-brows and a Silly Putty Mug that morphs my moods. I stepped into the Jerque Du Jour  with a verbal counterpoint similar to my age, culture and general bearing and the  white boy's bowels turned to water. Beeeeee Otch, Sonny?  Play that Funky Music, White, Boy!

The hectoring scamp exited the field with nothing more than his foamy brew and his pathetically fading impotent imperative sentences. I never had the chance to unsheathe my dolon.

A tear formed but refused to fall from my tired eyes as I considered how it must really suck to be that boy.  America's youth.  Sic Transit White Boy

Here is a fine example of exactly the species encountered


Segway Cop vs Skateboarder: The Reckoning - Watch More Funny Videos

A disquieting disquisition - It sucks to be you, Son. Now, here is a proper role model for you , young Feller!

Officer Ward - NATO & OWS Veteran -

First Amendment Rights Can Be Terminated - Watch More Funny Videos


Had the lad been formed in a family and neighbor centered embrace like here in Working Man Chicago, such life lessons would only be of consequence to career criminals, lawsuit lotto lawyers, mental defectives and members of Progressive Marching Societies

Catholics for Doing What the @#$% You Feel Like Responds to the Catholic Bishops

Tim Pireacht is the President of  Caitlicigh do gach Duine Lánúnas (Catholics for  @#$% All and Everyone)

“What makes you a Catholic,” Tim says, “is your Baptism.”

 That said, Tim Pireacht  arrived in Chicago to accept an award from the Progressive Pan Fetish/Onanist/ Puppy Love Political Action Committee (PFOPL).  Tim's work in making Catholics aware that they need to do absolutely  nothing once the good Father applies the salt, oil and water to little Fish eaters.

The Cork-born founder of Caitlicigh do gach Duine Lánúnas  clarified, " You can eat the knickers off a Sultan's missus, wear a titled kilt and an Indian Headress to Bar Mitzva and be a Catholic.  You can drink yourself paralytic, whore about, play the villain, mooch, abort the babies, spread the crabs, roger yer man's old woman and her kids, hump the chihuahua, bugger the meter reader, vote for Obama, snatch the money out of young Tadgh's 1st communion cards, order a pork chop at Salaam, blackguard the curate, use Granny's I-Pass, jump the turn-stile and sleep with a Yak, because you have been baptized!"

The celebrated gobshite, lay-about and academic set the historical context.  " I mean Archbishop Buzz Kill, or What?  Nay, to naught I say!  Bishops, and them collared lads, cause more problems than a Mot's dose. Stay NEUTRAL!  Ireland avoided all the Blitz and Feck All because DEV said - stay neutral.  Follow the Pope and be Thomas More with no noggin, or Larry O'Toole on the Brit Griddle.  Catholics Choose to Stay Neutral and let the other fellas hump the worries,' the artful Celt offered.

"So,'BELT UP, BLOODY WANKERS!'  Religion, one's faith, should be as easy and as liberating as the old quick jig to the jakes after a great feed of colcannon and a gallon of Guinness," concluded this voice of Progressive Thought.

Tim Pireach took home his award, his honorarium, three sets of steak knives and three members if the cast of  Chicago's cast of The Book of Mormon.


As election draws nigh, more such fine reportage will appear in Chicago's newspapers . . .fading like a Cheshire cats grin and Obama's Hope.

Brian Egan -Christ's Good Man Goes Home

 Jack, Nora, Pat, Bridget and Brian Egan of St. Cajetan's Parish


I met Brian Egan through St. Cajetan Parish and Kennedy Park activities.  My son played St. Caj football with Jack Egan who was a year older than Conor and my youngest daughter remains very close with Nora with whom Clare went through Three of Seven Sacraments, Pre-K, T-Ball, Soccer, Softball, Basketball and the rigors of eight years of Catholic grammar school on the south side of Chicago. No easy task that.  Brian Egan had their little backs.

All through those years, Brian Egan stood on the sidelines, in the stands and in the dugouts, knelt in the pew and supported not only his babies, but every youngster with his coaching skills which were formidable, his encouragement which was genuine and his love which was never turned off at anytime.

His beautiful daughter Bridget suffered with disease and Brian Egan had her shoulders locked in his grip. His lovely wife Pat had a guy who worshiped the sand, clay and blades of freshly cut Chicago Park District grass in and under her sandals.  Brian Egan, like most south side guys I know,  was life-long overwhelmed by the love of his girlfriend, bride and partner.  Well we should.

Brian Egan was too tall a man to cast a shadow.  I am heartbroken with his passing from our company but comforted that God has a great coach, neighbor and role model for His Saints.  Brian Egan now makes a 'better place' a happier one.

Thanks for being there for all of us, Brian!

Brian J. Egan, age 58, born Into Eternal Life on Oct. 29, 2012, beloved husband of Pat (nee Spellacy) for 32 years; loving father of Bridget (Fiancé Matt Houze), Jack and Nora; dear brother of James (Catherine), Janet (Zeke) Loughrey, Terence (Debbie) Carol (Terry) Kayser and Maribeth (Bill) Foran; fond brother-in-law of Mary Jo (Ken) Brooks and Donna (Jim) Dalton; "Uncle Brian" was also dearly loved by many nieces and nephews and countless friends. Visitation Wednesday 2 to 9 p.m. at the Brady-Gill Funeral Home (Heeney-Laughlin Directors), 2929 W. 87th St., Evergreen Park. Family and friends will meet at St. Cajetan Church 112th St. and Artesian Ave. on Thursday morning for Mass of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. Interment Mount Olivet Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations to Were Back for Brian.org c/o Archer Bank, 3435 W. 111th St., Chicago, IL 60655 are most appreciated. 708-636-5500